Guest Commentary: Passing on Enbridge donation sets a bad example

At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, the council voted 4:3 to refuse a $1,000 donation from Enbridge to help defray expenses for the city’s National Night Out event at Veterans Memorial Park and also any future donations.

I am, among other things, the chairman of the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail Extension Committee, which is a group of local volunteers whose sole purpose is to raise money to extend the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail from its existing 2.3 miles to the planned 5 miles.

There is $125,000 budgeted for this project. In the past 10 months we have raised $89,000 from a matching grant, donations and events. This leaves $36,000 remaining to be raised. Two Sundays ago we raised $1,200 at Pine Valley with biking and running races. Our goal is to raise as much money as we can without going to the Cloquet taxpayers.

One donation was $5,000 from Enbridge. This denial of acceptance puts this donation in jeopardy.

The reasoning for the denial was the predicted increase in human sex trafficking due to the construction of the new Enbridge pipeline.

Human sex trafficking is downright bad and councilor Lamb is a very good and strong advocate against it.

Also, the state government and Enbridge are in a tax dispute that could affect our taxes and my pocketbook.

I remember when the air in Cloquet stank, the St. Louis River was dead, and I had a good job at Potlatch.

Advocates focus our attention to keep the air and water clean and people safe.

• Companies produce goods and services and employment, and get things done.

• Governments make and enforce rules, procedures, and codes of conduct to live by.

When these get out of balance we get screwed. This denial of donations is out of balance and our fundraising project got screwed.

I am opposed to this denial for the following reasons:

1. Advocating for or against the construction of the new Enbridge pipeline is a subject matter not appropriate for the city council at this time.

2. Human sex trafficking, though undeniably downright bad, also is not an appropriate subject matter at this time.

3. Linking opposition to any respectable company’s expansion activity and human sex trafficking with donations from that company is also inappropriate at this time and lacks any manner of proper governmental process.

4. This denial is a good way of stifling volunteerism in Cloquet as fundraisers will thus have to check with the city to see who is naughty or nice.

5. I believe that Enbridge and its employees are good corporate citizens with warts and, as such, have in place policies and procedures to eliminate human sex trafficking in its work sites and the surrounding environments it affects.

6. Enbridge, just like any of us, wants to minimize our taxes and maximize our goodies. It is up to the lawmakers to make tax laws and tax receipts that are fair to all.

7. This denial is a form of city-sponsored blacklisting without any public discussion and is arbitrary in application.

8. To deny receiving donations without a publicly approved set of standard policies and procedures is extremely poor business and financial management, and

9. Finally, it stigmatizes many good people who have nothing to do with human sex trafficking and who work for Enbridge.

Tim Krohn is a long-time Cloquet resident and volunteer, a runner, biker, canoe paddler, world traveler and just a guy with his dog.